When the long anticipated new Munch Museum, finally opened, they invited press, celebrities, and ordinary people to a grand opening in October. But tickets sold out in seconds – most ordinary people couldn’t get in.

We took the opportunity to curate our very own Munch Museum, based on stuff we found through classified ads on finn.no.

In a gallery just around the corner from the official Munch Museum, we carefully curated everything from original Munch art, and old Munch posters, to Munch-related toys, books, clothes, and various trinkets. All found through the classified ads on finn.no.

During the opening weekend, thousands of visitors got to experience up close how finn.no can offer affordable art and culture to ordinary people.

A Munch Museum for people who couldn’t get ticket for the Munch Museum

On FINN.no, we found Munch mugs, Munch pictures, posters, puzzles, plates, toys, paintings by amateurs, and genuine prints by Warhol.

The “art” was exhibited with the original descriptions from FINN listings and were all carefully curated and exhibited in a gallery just around the corner from the other museum.

Our target audience was ordinary Norwegians that feel distanced to the Munch Museum and the art scene in general. People who would appreciate a playful confirmation that you don’t have to be highbrow or rich to find great art.

Since Finn is a "brand of the people" our approach was to use this high cultured event and turn it into something for the man in the street.

When we found out that the opening weekend was sold out for ordinary people, the idea of a gallery for “the (wo)man on the street” surfaced.

We did a search on finn.no and started selecting Munch-related objects we wanted to exhibit (including tickets to the official opening!).

In a venue next to the new Munch Museum, we painted the walls “gallery” white and started curating the exhibition.

All the “art” was exhibited with the descriptions from the original FINN listings, which gave the artworks a humorous touch and gave the visitors the opportunity to purchase the pieces, as long as they could stay exhibited during the weekend.

Two days before the official opening of the Munch Museum, we released a social media campaign inviting “everyone”, and a press release was sent out informing about our alternative Grand Opening at 16:55, 5 minutes before The Norwegian King opened the Munch Museum.

With thousands of visitors and amazing press-coverage in national television and radio, the museum created great buzz and a lot of earned media.

The search for Munch-art on FINN.no went up by 400% and “Art and Antiques”, a previously dusty category, got a new lease of life.

And as a bonus, our Munch Museum generated almost 220,000 Norwegian kroners, that were all donated to charity.